Conventional digital imaging devices or cameras have a lens (which may include multiple lens elements) that focuses image light onto an image sensor that measures the image light and generates an image based on the measurements. FIG. 1 illustrates a common configuration for a digital imaging device 100. FIG. 1 includes an image sensor 101 and optical efficiency lenses 110 disposed over image sensor 101. Optical efficiency lenses 110 function to draw as much light as possible into the pixels for measurement. Optical efficiency lenses 110 may be microlenses disposed over each pixel of image sensor 101. An infrared (“IR”) filter 115 may be disposed over optical efficiency lenses 110 and image sensor 101 to filter out IR light from being measured by image sensor 101. Lens 120 is disposed over image sensor 101 to focus image light 190 onto the pixels of image sensor 101. Lens 120 may include convex and/or concave lens elements 123 that give lens 120 a certain focal length. The focal length of lens 120 may correspond with a Depth of Field. Depth of Field refers to the range of distances in the field of view of an image sensor that appear to be well focused in an image captured by image sensor 101.
To achieve a given resolution, a conventional digital imaging device may require a certain footprint in a given aspect ratio (e.g. 4:3, 16:9). Conventional digital imaging devices may also have a limited field of view for a given image capture. Conventional digital imaging devices may also be limited to a given number of image captures in a specific amount of time (e.g. 30 frames per second). Some conventional digital imaging devices are also limited to a given exposure time in a given image capture. This may limit the dynamic range of the image captured. A conventional digital imaging device also typically only has one depth of field in any given image captured because lens 120 has one focus distance at one time. For example, the foreground of an image may be in focus because it is within the depth of field for that image, but the background of the image may be blurred because it was not within the depth of field for that image. Therefore, a device or method that allows a digital imaging device to overcome all or some of these limitations would be advantageous.